Jealousy as a motivator
by Rainbow Kittens
Summary: There's a new kid in town. And when he and Sakura become friends, Syaoran starts to feel threatened. Changes like this call for bold action! SXS
1. Chapter 1

"I just can't imagine what it would be like to transfer to a new school" Sakura said to her friend Tomoyo as she packed up her books to go home for the night.

"And that's why you invited him over for tea after school?" Tomoyo replied with a slight scowl. "You promised you would come over this afternoon to try on some of my new outfits!"

Sakura had to admit to herself that that the prospect of getting out of the fashion show might have been a motivating factor for her decision to invite the new kid over. She loved Tomoyo, but it seemed with each passing year her costumes became more outlandish, and within recent months, a little more risqué then Sakura liked.

"I'm sorry Tomoyo-chan. We can make it up this weekend, I promise. I'll even buy you ice cream to make up for it."

"Buy her ice cream to make up for what Sakura-chan, what mischief have you gotten into now?" Syaoran leaned up against the locker next to Sakura's with his hands in his pockets and his classically smug look.

He'd known Sakura practically his whole life. Ever since they fought together for the Clow cards and then transformed them into the Sakura Cards, they'd been inseparable since. Everyone assumed they were dating, and Syaoran didn't mind that assumption. He and Sakura hung out all the time, and they cared about each other. But, they hadn't had _the talk_ the one that defines a relationship. At first they were just too young, and then it seemed silly. There was never anyone else.

Things were changing recently though. Syaoran kept seeing Sakura walking to class and wanting to hold her hand. At night he would think about her as he went to sleep. In short, he was wanting more and more for Sakura to actually be his girlfriend, not just his friend who was a girl. But, Sakura, being herself, was completely clueless to anything that was going on.

"Sakura-chan has a date." Tomoyo taunted. She always was more perceptive then anyone had a right to be.

Syaoran's face paled. It's what he'd always feared, his lack of initiative would lead to the impossible, Sakura liked someone more then him.

Sakura's face turned pink. "It's not a date Syaoran-kun. I've just invited over the new boy for tea, so he doesn't feel so lonely."

The new boy, of course. Everyone else in school would already know that Sakura is hands off. She's pretty and smart, and every boy wants to date her, but everyone knows that she belongs to him.

"Maybe I should come with you Sakura-chan" Syaoran said. "I don't know this guy and I don't like the idea of you taking him home with you."

"Don't be silly Syaoran-kun. You have second period with Tomu-kun, I thought you two got along. Anyway, you have soccer practice after school, so you can't come over. I have to go meet up with Tomu-kun now, but I'll see you both later!"

"There she goes" Tomoyo commented to Sakura's retreating back "you don't feel threatened by the new boy, do you Syaoran-kun?" She said with a knowing smile.

"No, of course not" Syaoran replies. "But, when on earth did she have time to get on a first name basis with him?"

Tomoyo just raised her eyebrows in reply.

--

"Tomu-kun! Are you ready to go?" Sakura shouted down the hall as she walked briskly up to him.

Tomu blushed shyly and looked down at his feet "Yes, just give me a minute to finish up with my backpack." He said as he stuffed a few more loose papers into the already bulging bag. "Who could have known I'd get this much work in my first week here."

Sakura laughed "I guess that's just how teachers work. Fresh meat and all. Come on lets get going. I'm starving and I know you must be hungry too."

"Sure, I'm ready. Thank you so much for inviting me over Kinomoto-san. It's been hard to adjust and I have to admit I've been a little lonely." Tomu said as he swung his backpack up over his shoulder.

"No worries. I'm excited to get to know you better."

As they walked back to Sakura's house they talked about their childhood. Tomu had grown up in a small town on the other side of Japan. His family had moved suddenly when his dad got transferred.

"It must be hard for you to come to a new place in the middle of high school!" Sakura exclaimed "All my friends I've know for as long as I can remember."

By now they'd reached the house. Sakura rushed inside to start preparing snacks and tea.

"Have a seat Tomu-kun" I'll only be a few minutes.

Tomu wandered around the living room looking at family photos, and wondering if _he _had been there.

Sakura walked back into the room balancing a large tray of tea and snacks, and startling Tomu. She set the tray down on the table. "Lets eat!" she exclaimed.

--

Syaoran hadn't played this poorly since, well, for as long as he could remember. He'd lost the ball so many times. His mind just kept wandering, to Sakura. What was she doing right now, was she having fun, laughing with _that boy_. Were the sitting together on the couch. Only inches apart. All the kid had to do was lean in...

SMACK

"Li! What on earth were you thinking, you crazy #!!" Syaoron's coach yelled at him from above. Syaoran put his hand to his head to feel the giant welt that was starting to form. Not only had he not been paying attention to practice, but he had just run into the bleachers head on. This was bad.

All the boys were gathered around Syaoran looking down with the same look of confusion. Normally Syaoran was the most put together person on the team, yelling at everyone else for daydreaming.

Syaoran finally got up. He bowed to his coach. "I'm so sorry, but I think I need to leave practice early today." Without waiting for an answer he grabbed Eriol's hand and dragged him off the field.

"What are you doing Syaoran? Just because you've gone insane doesn't mean you should bring me into it." Eriol protested

"No" Syaoran agreed "But this time I need your help."

A devilish look entered Eriol's eye. He could smell mischief from a mile away. "What exactly were you thinking?"

--

"This is it?" Eriol complained as he hunched in the bushes behind Sakura's house. "You wanted me to help you spy on Sakura? I have all the magic in the world and a brilliant mind at your disposal, and you want me to be a peeping tom?"

"Well, yes. Just sneak closer and see if you can see her through the living room window." They both crept closer to the house trying not to make too much noise.

"Ouch!"

Eriol and Syaoran looked at each other in surprise. That bush had just protested. Suddenly, the bush moved.

"Tomoyo-chan? What are you doing here?" Eriol asked

"I could ask you two the same question, and I'm guessing we would all give the same answer; spying on Sakura."

Eriol and Syaoran couldn't help but notice the camcorder clutched in Tomoyo's hand.

"Somehow I think you're not just here to spy Tomoyo-chan." Said Eriol

Suddenly there was a loud noise from the house. They all turned at the same time in response to the commotion coming from the kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

"Tomu, what was it like where you came from?" Sakura asked after setting the tea tray on the table. She pored two cups of tea and handed one to Tomu.

"It was different from here, but, still high school." He replied, "You know, all the pettiness and everything."

"So were you sad to leave? I know I would be sad to go somewhere new, where I didn't know anyone" Sakura said

Tomu looked at Sakura questioningly. He seemed to be trying to make a decision. After a few moments he came to a conclusion, "I guess I was ok to leave, I wanted to come somewhere where I could redefine myself." He blushed a light shade of pink. There's actually something I wanted to ask you about Kinomoto-san."

"What is it?" Sakura asked.

"You're good friends with Li-san aren't you?" Tomu blushed a little darker

"Yes, Syaoran-kun and I have been best friends for years, why? Is he not being nice to you?" Sakura responded, with a concerned look

"No, he's been nice, I like him very much." Tomu was now a fairly deep shade of red

Suddenly there was a crash from the kitchen. Sakura Practically jumped into Tomu's lap

"Hoeeeeee!! What was that? Do you think it's a ghost!? It sounded like a ghost! Hoeeeee!" She was gripping Tomu's arm rather tightly.

Syaoran, Tomoyo and Eriol ran to the window to look into the living room in response to the noise. Syaoran's eyes widened to the size of platters when he saw what Tomu and Sakura were doing. She was in his lap, with her arms clutched around him.

"What the F#CK!!" Syaoran whispered in outrage.

Tomoyo looked over at Syaoran. This was bad, very, very bad. She had never seen Syaoran this angry before. She made eye contact with Eriol. They needed to restrain Syaoran before he did anything stupid, like kill the guy.

Syaoran started to run for the door, but Eriol managed to tackle him into the garden that circled Sakura's house. With Eriol pinning Syaoran to the ground Tomoyo leaned down to try and talk to him rationally.

"Syaoran-kun, it might not be what it looks like. Please calm down"

Eriol was working hard to restrain Syaoran, he wasn't sure how much longer he could last. He and Syaoran were a match on a normal day, but in the state Syaoran was in, Eriol was pretty sure Syaoran could kick his butt.

"That f#ck faced S#ht hole, who the hell does he f#cking think he is? I'm going to f#cking rip his f#cking spleen out of his f#cking throat!!"

Tomoyo is no innocent little girl anymore, but that is not language she is used to hearing. She leaned down to where Syaoran was struggling fiercely, and gave him a smart slap across the face. "Shut up. I like how you've managed to jump to a lot of conclusions pretty quickly. We don't know the circumstances of what's going on at all. You need to calm down and stop making an ass of yourself."

Syaoran went limp. "Its just, she was in his lap…"

"I know Syaoran-kun, but it might not be what it looks like. I'm willing to tell Eriol to get off of you, if you promise to behave yourself until we know what the situation is." Tomoyo said

Syaoran looked a little ashamed. "Alright, but I reserve the right to kick that kid's butt if he really is taking advantage of Sakura-chan."

Eriol let go of Syaoran and got up, brushing himself off with as much dignity as he could. Tomoyo and Eriol followed Syaoran back to the window.

Eriol leaned in to whisper into Tomoyo's ear "This doesn't look good, ne? She was the one on his lap, it wasn't like he was taking advantage of her, it looked more like it was the other way around."

Tomoyo frowned, "I know what it looked like, but I can't believe that of Sakura-chan."

"I'm sure that it wasn't a ghost Kinomoto-san. We should go check it out." Tomu said as he pushed her back onto the couch.

"Hoeee!" Sakura was terrified of ghosts, she didn't want to go into the kitchen, but, she couldn't let Tomu go in there alone in case it was a ghost. What if he got attacked? "OK" she said tentatively, "I'll follow you" Sakura picked up the tennis racket she'd left sitting by the couch after practice the other day and followed closely behind Tomu.

The kitchen was a mess, pots and pans everywhere. As she looked around Sakura caught a flash of yellow whip around the corner and up the stairs. Her stomach settled back where it was supposed to be, it was just Kero, not a ghost. She took another look at the kitchen and blanched. It was a mess. Stupid Kero-chan! She set the tennis racked down. "Would you excuse me for a second?"

Sakura ran up the stairs without waiting for a reply. She burst into her room "Kero-chan!" she exclaimed in a forceful whisper "What on earth did you think you were doing?!"

"I thought you were with that brat, and I got hungry. When I realized it was someone else I panicked, and I might have broken some stuff." Kero's face fell "I just thought it was the brat, he's who you always have over anyway."

"Well it wasn't, it's Tomu-kun, and now you've made a mess that I'm going to need to clean up!" Sakura said. "Just stay quiet up here for a little longer ok?" She walked out of the room and shut the door behind her.

"What was that all about?" Tomu asked Sakura as she walked back down the stairs

Sakura paused, trying to think of a good excuse, she was never very good at this, "Um, it was, it was my cat! I wanted to make sure he hadn't hurt himself." Sakura heard an exclamation from upstairs, Kero had heard her and didn't much like the comparison. She rushed the rest of the way down the stairs. "I should probably get to cleaning the kitchen before my brother gets home. I'm sorry I have to cut our tea short."

"No, that's alright, I should probably be going anyway. We can finish our talk about Li-san some other time." Tomu replied

"Yes, of course" Sakura replied distractedly, I'll see you tomorrow at school. She opened the door for him and followed him out onto the porch.

"Goodbye Kinomoto-san" Tomu said

"Call me Sakura, Tomu-kun, we are friends for sure." Sakura replied. She gave him a quick hug and then walked back into the house to deal with Kero.

Tomu smiled. She was very nice, and she promised to help in with Syaoran. It was a good day. He headed down the street with his hands in his pockets whistling a happy tune.

Little did he know that the object of his desire was behind a bush being forcefully restrained by two people to keep him from pummeling his face in.


End file.
